• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.269-281
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the frequency of convenience food consumption at convenience stores (CVS) and the CVS usage patterns of middle and high school students as well as to understand students' attitude toward sodium and sugar reduction. Methods: We used an online questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire comprised five distinct categories: general characteristics, CVS usage, frequency of consumption according to convenience food menus at CVS, attitude toward sodium and sugar reduction, and adherence to dietary guidelines. Results: A total of 75 students from Seoul (14 middle school students and 61 high school students) participated in the study. Most respondents visit CVS 3-5 times a week. CVS are predominantly used during weekdays, mostly during lunch, and dinner. The students mostly checked the caloric content and expiration date as food labeling information. The participants were aware of the need to reduce their sugar and sodium intake. Among frequent CVS convenience food consumers, there was an increased consideration of the need to reduce their sugar and sodium consumption, despite their actual selection of foods with high sugar and sodium content. Additionally, they did not check the sugar and sodium levels indicated in food labeling. Further, the dietary action guide from the Ministry of Health and Welfare were poorly followed by most students. Conclusions: There is a need for nutrition education specifically addressing the sugar and sodium content of the convenience foods predominantly consumed by students. Additionally, educating students with frequent convenience food consumption to actively check the sugar and sodium information on food labels could help promote healthier food choices.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.23-40
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• 2021

This study was conducted to examine the sugar intake and perception of sugar reduction based on the practice of Dietary Action Guides among the college students in Cheongju. A convenience sample of 343 healthy college students(male n=195, female n=148) was divided into two subgroups based on a median split(male M=12, female M=11) of the extent to which they practice the Dietary Action Guides: low practice(LP) group(male n=117, female n=82) and high practice(HP) group(male n=78, female n=66). There was no significant difference in age, weight, and body mass index between the groups; however, among the female students, the LP group had significantly higher frequencies of snacking and smoking, and higher sweet taste perception. For both male and female students, the LP group were more likely to eat sweet snacks such as carbonated beverage, flavored milk, and snacks sold outside, and had significantly higher total sugar intake from the sweet snacks than the HP group. The percentage of exceeding the WHO recommended daily sugar intake (50 g) was significantly higher for the LP group(36.59%) than for the HP group(13.64%) among female students. The perceived necessity of the sugar intake reduction was not significantly different between the LP and HP groups. The identification of nutrition labels when purchasing snack was significantly lower for the LP group than for the HP group regardless of gender. The necessity of nutrition labels education was higher than 80 percent for both the groups. Based on these results, encouraging the practice of Dietary Action Guides seems to be helpful in reducing the sugar intake among the college students.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 1998

Current status of nutrient fortification in processed food in Korea were presented by analyzing the information shown on food labels. The obtained information was assessed by the regulations on food fortification in both Korea and other countries including Codex. The most current regulations were gathered from internet. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Major nutrients fortified were calcium, Vit C, Vit B complex, iron and fiber. The forfified foods were not limitted to certain food group with more frequent fortification in snackfoods, cereal, ramyun, retort pouch foods, milk, and youguart. The descriptive terms of nutrition label for the fortification were various including high, supplemented, added, source, fortified, and abundance though the difference among these terms were not distinct. 2. Current regulation on nutrition label requires to give the content of the fortified nutrient and % RDA. However not all of food items carry above information. Also some ingredients such as chitosan, DHA, taurine, $\omega$-3 fatty acid, chondrichin, bifidus were supplemented mainly to the snack foods which FDA(USA) does not allow to be fortified. 3. The nutrient most frequently fortified was calcium and general practice of fortification appears to follow the regulation in Korea. Presently the regulation itself is not well described, this nutient fortification can cause toxic effect. Since calcium was supplemented to wide range of food group consumers who are not conscious of the safe upper limit may intake the fortified food up to the level of 2g/day. 4. For the effective fortification in Korea, the regulation on fortification should be reformed in accordance with the international guideline Codex and the regulations in other countries especially in America and Japan.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.230-247
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• 2023

This study aimed to investigate the association between awareness of having a chronic disease with food habits and dietary quality among 320 male manufacturing workers in their 40s. Participants were categorized into groups. The first group comprised workers who were aware of having chronic diseases (ACD, n=160) and had been diagnosed with any one or more of the following major chronic diseases: Metabolic syndrome, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. The second group comprised those who had experienced none of the above diseases were classified as a group of people who were a ware of not having chronic diseases (ANCD, n=160). The mean age of the subjects was 44.2 years. The mean weight (P<0.001) and body mass index (BMI; P<0.01) were significantly higher in the ACD than in the ANCD group. The frequency of alcohol consumption and the number of current smokers were not significantly different between the two groups. Dietary attitudes were not significantly different between the two groups. The frequency of egg consumption was significantly higher in the ACD group (P<0.05). Picky eating, vegetable intake, checking nutrition labels, and healthy eating behavior were not significantly different between the two groups. The frequency of exercise was significantly lower in the ACD group compared to the ANCD group (P<0.05). The mean nutrition quotient (NQ) score was 51.9, with no significant difference between the two groups. Based on these results, the awareness of suffering from chronic diseases was not significantly related to dietary attitudes, food habits, and overall dietary quality among production workers. Therefore, there is a need to develop and implement nutrition education programs to inculcate an awareness of health status that can lead to dietary changes.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.442-456
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• 2013

This study was performed to investigate the dietary habits, body satisfaction and nutritional knowledge according to body image of middle school girl students (n = 284). The subjects were classified as lean, normal and fat groups according to body image. The weight, body mass index (BMI) and the score of body image were significantly higher in the students who recognized their body image as 'fat'. The satisfaction of present body image was significantly lower in students who recognized their body image as 'lean'. The interest in weight control and experience of weight control were significantly higher in students who recognized their body image as 'fat'. The necessity of nutrition education was higher in all groups (lean 67.2%, normal 59.0% and fat 52.8%). The products used to feel sweetened were sweetened ice (68.7%), processed milk (68.3%), confectionery (62.3%), carbonated beverage (55.3%), fermented milk (38.0%) and none (6.0%). The frequency of consumption of fruit juices and fried food was significantly higher in 'normal' compared to 'fat'. There was no significant difference in the frequency of consumption of snack and nutritional knowledge among the three groups. In the multiple regression analysis, the score of body image was negatively associated with the frequency of snack consumption in the 'lean'. The score of body image was positively associated with identification of nutrition labels and an interest in weight control but was negatively associated with satisfaction of present body image in the 'fat'. Based on these results, we conclude that, the middle school girl students need correct recognition of body image and continuous and practical nutrition education in order to maintain healthy dietary habits.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.235-245
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• 2007

This study was undertaken to develop web-based nutrition information contents for the older adults. Twenty six domestic web-sites were analyzed and then 12 foreign web-sites and 4 education materials for the elderly of foreign university were benchmarked. Also a lot of literatures on elderly education program were reviewed. A card-sorting task was performed with 8 older adults to ascertain how the target audience organized information about nutrition. The results were as fellows. Among 26 domestic web-sites, 2 sites(7.7%) were only for the elderly. Main topics of information contents for the elderly included 'Importance of Healthy Eating', 'DRI', 'Dietary Guidelines'. Four of twelve foreign web-sites were for the elderly nutrition education. Topics of 'Dietary Guideline', 'Meal Program' were found in 4 sites and 'Importance of Healthy Eating', 'Diet & Disease', 'DRI, 'Food Guide Pyramid', 'Nutrition Fact Labels' were found in 3 sites. Education materials of foreign university dealt with basic information on 'nutrient needs changes related with aging', 'Heart & Bone Healthy Eating Plan', 'Food Guide Pyramid'. Also topics on 'Eating on a budget', 'Eating Out Guideline' were included for practical use for the elderly. Based on card-sorting process, contents framework for web-site was developed and 4 main menus for framework were respectively named as 'Nutrition', 'Meals', 'Foods'. 'Check up Nutritional Health' by panel discussion. Finally we developed nutrition information contents for 4 main menus. We focused on helping older adults recognize the importance of healthy eating and apply the nutrition information to practical use. We expect that the developed framework of contents can be a guideline for indentifying the information needs of older adults in developing effective nutrition intervention program. And we suggest that the survey for target people should be peformed for the web-site to be user-friendly designed and the developed contents be evaluated and revised in the near future.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.100-108
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• 1997

Our current food hygiene law mandates nutrition label (NL) for the special nutrition foods, health support foods, instant foods, and foods with certain nutrient emphasized note, only. Currently more processed foods are bearing nutrition labels though the format is quite inconsistant. This study examined the status on current nutrition labeling practices for the processed foods that are retailed in the supermarket. The obtained information was assessed in the aspects of numerical data presentation on nutrients content, descriptive terms, health claim, and the format. The results are summarized as follows. 1) Foods with NL are limited to the food category specified by current hygiene law while voluntary nutition labeling is few. 2) Descriptive terms such as free, low, and sufficient are not substantiated with quantitative data. The efficacy of microelements which has not been clalified yet are overemphasized but major nutrients are ignored. 3) The regulations for the descriptive terms are set on the base of the nutrient content per 100g or 100ml under current nutrition labeling act. It would mislead consumers thus the definition for these descriptor be better set on the unit of the amount of food customary eaten at one time. For this the standard serving size should be set officially. 4) Quantitative nutrition information given on food products is difficult to compare because of the lack in formality. The title of NL, load and kinds of nutritents, order of nutrients listed, the unit of expression, RDA comparision, and reference RDA are inconsistant among the foods similar in dietary property. Uniform format is needed to give NL the credibility and usefulness. Proividing nutrition information to the consumers with NL is a worldwide practice though its efficacy has been controversial. Under newly legistered health promotion law in Korean nutrition education is esxpected to take part in to improve national nutrition condition and NL would education is expected to take part in to improve national nutrition condition and NL would be a potent tool for public nutritions education. It appears to be the time to mandate NL to all the processed foods in the market. The result of present study would initiate further consumer experiments related to NL. Various interest groups such as food and nutrition professions, public health organizations, government regulatory agencies, food producers and marketers, and consumer groups need to particepate and communicate for the legislation of NL and the development of NL format.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.193-205
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to investigate nutrient and food intake status and dietary quality in Korean adults according to nutrition label utilization. Methods: We analyzed data from the combined 2010-2011 KNHANES (Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey). The analysis included 8190 adults aged 19 to 64 years. In this study, according to nutrition label utilization, we classified the subjects according to the "non-utilization of nutrition label (NUNL)" group (male, n = 2716, female, n = 3147), "identification of nutrition label (INL)" group (male, n = 143, female, n = 330), and "Utilization of nutrition label (UNL)" group (male, n = 363, female, n = 1491). Nutrient and food group intake, NAR (nutrient adequacy ratio), MAR (mean adequacy ratio), and INQ (index of nutritional quality) were analyzed using data from the 24-recall method. Results: Results of this study showed that subjects in the NUNL group were significantly more likely to drink alcohol compared with the other two groups. The NUNL group showed a significantly higher frequency of consuming instant noodles, Soju (male), and carbonated drink (female) than the UNL group, whereas the NUNL group showed a significantly lower frequency of consuming milk, soymilk, and yogurt than the UNL group. In addition, regarding diet quality (NAR and INQ), significantly lower vitamin $B_2$, vitamin C, and calcium was observed in the NUNL group compared with the UNL group. For both male and female, significantly higher MAR was observed in the UNL group than in the NUNL group. The NUNL group showed significantly lower consumption of milk compared to the UNL group. Conclusion: Good dietary practice such as referring to nutrition labels and its influence can affect the quality of nutritional intake and selection of food, while it can also provide basic data for specific nutrition education regarding use of nutrition labeling.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.30-43
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was to conducted to investigate the prevalence and related factors of metabolic syndrome (MS) among Korean adults. Methods: We used secondary data of the sixth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) from 2013 to 2015 and selected 4,939 adults 20 to 64 years old. General characteristics and health-related characteristics were included as related factors for analysis. Chi-square tests were used to compare the prevalence of MS between one-person and multiple-person households, while a multiple logistic regression model was used to identify factors to MS among one-person and multiple-person households. Results: MS of one-person households (26.4%) were significantly higher (${\chi}^2=7.81$, p=.017) than multiple-households (19.5%). Risk factors for MS were identified as walking, flexibility exercises, reading nutrition labels, and sleep hours in one-person households; and flexibility exercises and dietary control among multiple-person households using multiple logistic regression. Conclusion: Specialized health policies and programs should be provided to reduce MS prevalence in one-person households in consideration of risk factors revealed in this study.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.291-300
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• 2008

We survey recognition of nutrition labeling on the processed foods for the college students with distinction of sex and their major. The frequency of purchase that processed food is over the 3-5 times in a week. The man students preferred to have Ramyon, milk and milk products and the woman students' ingested snacks, soft drinks and sugar snacks. For another, the food major students like to have juice, soft drink, milk and milk products. Then again, the non-food major students ingested Ramyon, snacks and sugar snacks. The woman students and food major students show higher recognition of nutrition labeling and confirmation of it. The man student replied reason why to confirm nutrition labeling is to keep their health. But the woman students show interest to confirm nutrition content. The food major students confirm the nutrition labeling to determine the nutrition labels. The non-food major students did not confirm the nutrition labeling because they think it is an involved style. For knowledge of nutrition contents, the woman student and the student majoring food are well informed. But, all of the student show poor knowledge for staple foods, nutrient function and vitamin. As the research results, we suggest that the educated the student nutrition knowledge for nutrition labeling on the products. It helps to improve their dietary life and eating habits. And they can avoid buying of the processed foods by habit without confirmation of the nutrition.